Perry officials explore shared police district with Madison

Leaders from North Perry, Perry Village and Perry Township are exploring the idea of forming a Perry Police District and have invited Madison Village and Madison Township officials to join them in exploring an even larger district.
Officials aren’t sure how a single police district would fare in serving a 67-square-mile area of about 27,000 residents, but they’re hoping a feasibility study, paid by the state’s Local Government Innovation Fund, will change that.
The state launched the program last summer to lend and award grants to communities to provide more efficient services amid budget cuts that have slashed the state’s Local Government Fund. For a feasibility study, the program can award up to $50,000, and officials can later apply for another grant in the program to establish a district.
Officials from the communities and Lake County Sheriff’s Office met during July 14’s Perry Governmental Affairs Forum at Perry Village Hall to gauge the interest of Madison officials.
“What you’re looking at is a larger opportunity to not only get one of those grants but also get the largest amount of money,” Perry Township Trustee Rick Amos said at the meeting. “It certainly doesn’t commit anybody to participate in anything, but the idea to have somebody look at how something on the eastern end of the county, which is what we’re focusing on involving the (Lake County) Sheriff’s department, makes some sense. If we can get some real pros to do a very good study, gathering that information can’t be a bad thing — what we do with it is a totally different question.”
Officials said the feasibility study also may set forth another possibility of forming separate Madison and Perry police districts, similar to the Madison Fire District and Perry Fire District.
Four of Madison Village’s seven council members attended the meeting but offered no definitive answer on whether they would commit to Perry’s joint application to the state.
Instead, officials agreed to issue letters to each of the community’s elected leaders and make a decision at their own meetings.
None of Madison Township’s trustees were at the meeting to give their input, but several Perry officials said they spoke to Madison Township Administrator Lee Bodnar about the effort before the meeting.
Reached by phone after the meeting, Bodnar told The News-Herald the township won’t be participating in any police district feasibility study in the near future.
“Right now, we’re focusing on other areas that are on the radar,” Bodnar said.
Each of the five communities are served by different agencies with different funding formulas.
This year, Perry Village’s general fund is budgeting $465,596 to its police department and North Perry’s general fund is budgeting $305,000 to its police. Both departments provide an officer on patrol ever hour of the day. Madison Village’s general fund budgeted $539,000 this year to its police department to fund a patrol officer every hour. This past May, however, voters in the village approved a police levy and, beginning next year, the levy will raise $240,774 exclusively for the department.
Madison Township’s Police Department is even more self-reliant on its five levies. The department, which schedules two officers on patrol every hour, has a $2.27 million budget this year, almost all of which is funded by levies. This year the department also handles the purchasing of newer vehicles, said Fiscal Officer Terry Gerred-Ditchcreek.
Perry Township is the only community in the group that doesn’t directly pay for police coverage — the county does. Voters rejected adding a 0.8-mill levy to their property taxes in November 2010, which would’ve aligned them with Concord Township and Painesville Township for more targeted police coverage in their community.
Instead, residents are sharing the patrols of two deputies and one detective every hour with those two townships and Leroy Township, Sheriff Daniel Dunlap said.

About the Author

Simon Husted joined the News-Herald in February 2013. The Buffalo native and Kent State graduate covers schools and community issues in Fairport Harbor, Perry Township, Perry Village, North Perry, Madison Township and Madison Village. Reach the author at shusted@news-herald.com
or follow Simon on Twitter: @SimonSaysNH.